Robert J. Harris

Robert J. (Bob) Harris (October 5, 1930 - July 9, 2005) was a lawyer, professor, and mayor from the U.S. state of Michigan.

Harris was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He was educated at Wesleyan University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He was then a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and went on to Yale Law School, where he was a member of the Law Review and Order of the Coif. He served in the U.S. Army during the Korean conflict.

He came to Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1959 as a professor in the University of Michigan Law School, where he taught full-time from 1959 to 1974.

Harris was elected Mayor of Ann Arbor on the Democratic ticket on April 7, 1969, defeating Republican candidate Richard E. Balzhiser. He was re-elected on April 5, 1971, defeating Republican Jack J. Garris. During his second term in office, Harris worked with a liberal/radical coalition on city council, comprised of four Democrats and two members of the local, left-wing Human Rights Party (HRP), who held the balance of power beginning in 1972. Harris supported HRP efforts to decriminalize marijuana use in Ann Arbor (see "Marijuana laws in Ann Arbor, Michigan"), telling the "Washington Post": "In this town, it was the only way to go. ... We've made a great effort to get a decent relationship between the kids and the cops. Now at least we'll get the police out of the marijuana business." [Harris quoted in Leonard Shapiro, "Judge Sets Aside $5 Marijuana Fine in Ann Arbor, Mich.," "Washington Post", 22 Oct. 1972, p. G6.] In 1973, after two two-year terms in the mayor's post, Harris chose not to run for another term. That year, the liberal/radical coalition lost power, as Republican James E. Stephenson won the mayoralty and local Republicans took control of seven seats on the ten-seat city council. ["Ann Arbor," "Washington Post", 4 Apr. 1973, p. A20.]

After 1974, Harris continued as an adjunct faculty member at the law school, while practicing law as the senior partner of an Ann Arbor law firm he founded. The firm included, at various times, Bob Guenzel (later Washtenaw County Corporation Counsel, and now County Administrator), Ed Goldman (now general counsel of the University of Michigan Hospitals), and Jerry Lax (former Ann Arbor city attorney and candidate for a federal judicial appointment during the Clinton administration).

Harris, who was Jewish, was a member of Temple Beth Emeth (Reform) in Ann Arbor.

He died in 2005 from brain lymphoma, and is interred in Arborcrest Cemetery in Ann Arbor.

External links

* [http://www.umich.edu/~urecord/0405/July25_05/obits.shtml Obituary in the University of Michigan "Record"]
* [http://politicalgraveyard.com/geo/MI/ofc/annarbor.html Mayors of Ann Arbor page] at "PoliticalGraveyard.com"

References